Hughes flags off 'Bharat Saksham Yatra'

Jaipur, Mar 29: Hughes Communications Ltd, a leading provider of broad band satellite networks and services; along with Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd rolled out the first phase of 'Bharat Saksham Yatra' from Jaipur today.

The 30-day yatra will eud at Alwar on April 4.

Mr Pranav Roach, President Hughes, Networks Systems, India while addressing a press conference said, the yatra, a pan India initiative, will cover a total of 300 villages in Rajasthan , Nasik and Sangli districts in Maharashtra.

The objective of the yatra is to femiliarise and enthuse the village communities about the benefits of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) for socioeconomic empowerment and leveraging rural IT entrepreneurship opportunites.

''The Yatra is the crystallisation of our commitment with Microsoft to roll out 5000 ICT kiosks announced last year'', Mr Pranav said.

Mr Tarun Malik, Group Head-Rural Computing and publuc sector strategy, Microsoft, said the yatra will serve as a catalist to drive franchisee opportunities for rural masses to set up IT kiosks or 'Sangam Net Kendras' providing new revenue streams to kiosk owners and villagers.

The kendras will offer a host of services in regional languages including information on agri prices, mandi rates, weather forecasts, and animal husbandry programmes along with other broad band services ranging from online education, internet access and mobile pre-paid top ups to international voice calling.

He said '' the Yatra aims at creating a strong rural IT ecosystem by empowering rural IT kiosks owners to become entrepreneurs and thereby making IT a major driver for rural economic growth.''

UNI